design thinking - just what is it?

On the Fast Company site there is currently an article by Mak Dziersk regarding design thinking. I do not know Mark, but this article caught me off gaurd. He posits design thinking as a rather simple four step method.

"The methodology commonly referred to as design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results."

I have alwasy thought of design thinking as a growing collections of methods. What is presented is a simple for step process for design. Just curious, is this how everyone else views design thinking?

Mark

story link:

http://www.fastcompany.com/resources /design /dziersk /design -thinking -083107.html

Hi, Well, you're definitely not going to get consensus on that question, but here's my take (as posted to Paula Thornton's recept post on the same question, here: http://totalexperience.corante.com/archives /2007 /08 /31 /design _thinking.php )...

Two key characteristics of design thinking that come to mind:

EXPLORATORY MINDSET

(as opposed to "decision-making" mindset; see the excellent first essay in "Managing as Designing", Boland and Collopy, for more on this)

Decision mindset: "I am going to identify all the alternatives, weigh their consequences, and choose one."

Design mindset: "Many of the alternatives are yet to be discovered, and the true consequences of choosing any of them are difficult to be sure of; let's iteratively explore the possibilities together, discovering new ones and choosing as best we can at each step."

DESIGN PROCESS

Design thinking is built on confidence in The Design Process:

These two, for me, define "design thinking" for the extremely wide variety of situations I've found myself addressing in my career.

The definition of "value, " the shape of the working culture, choice of methods and tools,... the rest all follow.

Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting

On 18 Sep 2007, at 16:21, Mark Schraad wrote:

On the Fast Company site there is currently an article by Mak Dziersk regarding design thinking. I do not know Mark, but this article caught me off gaurd. He posits design thinking as a rather simple four step method. "The methodology commonly referred to as design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results." I have alwasy thought of design thinking as a growing collections of methods. What is presented is a simple for step process [trim]

I'm definitely in the growing collection of methods camp :-)

This sort of article reminds me very much of the way agile has been (over) simplified for the business press.

Adrian

Quickly googling it - design thinking is a methodology that is sweeping the corporate offices of america - just like harvard business press and borders bookstore will filled with books and articles about "Innovation" 2 years ago, and "Creativity" before that, and "Leadership, " before that — in the board rooms of america - i have noticed a trend that a new catch phrase for something comes out - fashionably around September - and begins to catch on - B-school professors catch on and write a couple of articles about it, or books - and they sell like hot cakes to executives and wanna-be executives. They offer saccarine flavored, watered down ideas to management (and make a decent bank), and then they move on to the next buzz word or phrase.

His article's intended audience was not actually designers - industrial/ixd/graphic etc. The intended audience was b-school grads, middle managers and executives. So take it with about as much salt as you would thinking that your going to learn to be a creative person by reason Harvard Business Review.

On 9/18/07, Mark Schraad mschraad at mac.com wrote: On the Fast Company site there is currently an article by Mak Dziersk regarding design thinking. I do not know Mark, but this article caught me off gaurd. He posits design thinking as a rather simple four step method. "The methodology commonly referred to as design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results." I have alwasy thought of design thinking as a growing collections of methods. What is presented is a simple for step process for design. Just curious, is this how everyone else views design [trim]

—
~ we

n: will evans
t: user experience architect
e: wkevans4 at gmail.com

To Further my point that actual designers are not the audience for watered down, easy to digest, over-simplified claptrap like this:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate /NussbaumOnDesign /archives /2007 /06 /ceos _must _be _de.html

http://www.agencynextpr.com/2007 /06 /30 /design -thinking -is -the -new -management -methodology /

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking -Pro -Engineer -Mastering -Methodology /dp /1566900654

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news /2005 /october12 /design -101205.html

The "design" revolution will not be televised. And you won't read it in business week.

snark!

On 9/18/07, W Evans wkevans4 at gmail.com wrote: Quickly googling it - design thinking is a methodology that is sweeping the corporate offices of america - just like harvard business press and borders bookstore will filled with books and articles about "Innovation" 2 years ago, and "Creativity" before that, and "Leadership, " before that — in the board rooms of america - i have noticed a trend that a new catch phrase for something comes out - fashionably around September - and begins to catch on - B-school professors catch on and write a couple of articles about it, or books - and they sell like hot [trim]

—
~ we

n: will evans
t: user experience architect
e: wkevans4 at gmail.com

This is funny and almost right out of the IxDA discussion list:

"Question; How many designers will it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer; Why a light bulb?"

~Lisa

Any structured decision making indeed follows this simple problem-solving protocol:

1: Define the problem
2: Create and consider many options - [this step is omitted in an unstructured decision making, replaced by "best example": "there is a tendency (mostly higher up the corporate food chain) to make decisions based on someone elses success or failure"]
3: Refine selected directions
4: Pick the winner, execute

The methods and practices for each step could be varied. Take a look, for example, at the variety of methods for brainstorming.

There is no conflict between the structure of the problem-solving protocol and the methods to implement it, just like there is no conflict between overall UCD process and variety of methods to implement it.

Oleh

PS Good point on current design hype in the corporate world.

On 9/18/07, Mark Schraad mschraad at mac.com wrote: On the Fast Company site there is currently an article by Mak Dziersk regarding design thinking. I do not know Mark, but this article caught me off gaurd. He posits design thinking as a rather simple four step method. "The methodology commonly referred to as design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results." I have alwasy thought of design thinking as a growing collections of methods. What is presented is a simple for step process for design. Just curious, is this how everyone else views design [trim]

-- Oleh Kovalchuke
Interaction Design is the Design of Time
http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm

...actual designers are not the audience for watered

down, easy to digest, over-simplified claptrap like this...

Yes, but the people who [employ/work with/need to be understood and influenced by] designers are.

ph

I'm curious, is the issue with the "methodology" he presents or with the superficiality of it? At the highest level I think the article is pretty on target, but makes it sound much too easy by not delving into the guts of how to accomplish each step. In that sense, it's really a framework he's describing, not a methodology. It's in these methodological details where the ever-growing collection of methods comes in.

Todd

On 9/18/07, Mark Schraad mschraad at mac.com wrote: On the Fast Company site there is currently an article by Mak Dziersk regarding design thinking. I do not know Mark, but this article caught me off gaurd. He posits design thinking as a rather simple four step method. "The methodology commonly referred to as design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results." I have alwasy thought of design thinking as a growing collections of methods. What is presented is a simple for step process for design. Just curious, is this how everyone else views design [trim]

Also google.
As Alan Kay say: The best way to predict the future is to invent it. This may address the problem of why need design thinking, it is to predict future. This also so called critical
thinking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking(or we call it adaptive thinking), which more emphasize on analyze/evaluate and find the best way to adapt to it. Both for predict the future. As other guys already said, it's more target to the none-designers, about predict and decision making.

P.S. Just a quick thought. As designers work is to design, maybe the more critical for ixd designer is to analyze before design. ; ) Cheers
-- Jarod

On 9/18/07, W Evans wkevans4 at gmail.com wrote: Quickly googling it - design thinking is a methodology that is sweeping the corporate offices of america - just like harvard business press and borders bookstore will filled with books and articles about "Innovation" 2 years ago, and "Creativity" before that, and "Leadership, " before that — in the board rooms of america - i have noticed a trend that a new catch phrase for something comes out - fashionably around September - and begins to catch on - B-school professors catch on and write a couple of articles about it, or books - and they sell like [trim]

-- IxD for better life style.

http://jarodtang.blogspot.com

Were I a business exec that was reading all of the hoopla about 'design thinking', and I read this my primary thought would be, 'is this all it is?' I agree, it is a framework. I guess I see the expansion of this framework, and all of the methods and techniques as the body of design thinking. Granted the article is not written for designers, and in fact written for non-designers. But the approach might have been a simple description, not a simplistic description. I think that same about the current wikipedia definition.

I also tend to include a lot of current thought regarding design... Bolland/Canopy as cited by Rettig, and nearly anything written byRoger Martin.

Mark

On Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at 12:15PM, "Todd Roberts" trrobert at gmail.com wrote: I'm curious, is the issue with the "methodology" he presents or with the superficiality of it? At the highest level I think the article is pretty on target, but makes it sound much too easy by not delving into the guts of how to accomplish each step. In that sense, it's really a framework he's describing, not a methodology. It's in these methodological details where the ever-growing collection of methods comes in. Todd On 9/18/07, Mark Schraad mschraad at mac.com wrote: On the Fast Company site there is currently an article by Mak Dziersk regarding design thinking. I do [trim]

From my actual reading of the articles - first - an internalized process for

designers and creatives to achieve best efforts and outcomes certainly warrants 'some' methodology and their's maybe no better or worse than others

On 9/18/07, Jarod Tang jarod.tang at gmail.com wrote: Also google. As Alan Kay say: The best way to predict the future is to invent it. This may address the problem of why need design thinking, it is to predict future. This also so called critical thinking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking(or we call it adaptive thinking), which more emphasize on analyze/evaluate and find the best way to adapt to it. Both for predict the future. As other guys already said, it's more target to the none-designers, about predict and decision making. P.S. Just a quick thought. As designers work is to design, maybe the more critical for ixd designer [trim]

—
~ we

n: will evans
t: user experience architect
e: wkevans4 at gmail.com

The concept of design thinking comes from the architecture and urban planning fields. In 1994, Peter G. Rowe published the book tilted 'Design Thinking" at the MIT Press. Many aspects of the design approach presented in the book apply nicely to the 'design process' in general.

cheers,

doris

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Those who cannot design, manage. Those that can't manage - write design process books for those managers that can't design.

:-)

On 9/18/07, W Evans wkevans4 at gmail.com wrote: From my actual reading of the articles - first - an internalized process for designers and creatives to achieve best efforts and outcomes certainly warrants 'some' methodology and their's maybe no better or worse than others - but - huge but - following that methodology will not make one line manager a designer - or a creative - and that is implied in the articles. And managers/executives who mandate a methodology is not going to turn an inherently uncreative group of direct reports into better designers - or creators. The one guaranteed outcome of the articles and books [trim]

—
~ we

n: will evans
t: user experience architect
e: wkevans4 at gmail.com